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<h1>ひらがな</h1>

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<div class="outline">
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<center><span class="summary">Outline</span></center>
<ol>
<li><a href="#part1">What is Hiragana?</a></li>
<li><a href="#part2">The Muddied Sounds</a></li>
<li><a href="#part3">The Small 「や」、「ゆ」、and 「よ」</a></li>
<li><a href="#part4">The Small 「つ」</a></li>
<li><a href="#part5">The Long Vowel Sound</a></li>
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<h2 id="part1">What is Hiragana?</h2>
<i>Hiragana</i> is the basic Japanese phonetic alphabet.  It represents every sound in the Japanese language.  Therefore, you can
theoretically write everything in hiragana.  However, because Japanese is written with no spaces, this will create nearly indecipherable text.
<p>Here is a table of hiragana and similar-sounding English consonant-vowel pronunciations. It is read up to down and right to left, which is how most
Japanese books are written.
In Japanese, writing the strokes in the correct order and direction is important, especially for kanji.  Because handwritten letters look slightly
different from typed letters (just like how 'a' looks totally different when typed) you will want to find a source such as a website or textbook
that will show you how to write the characters.
I must also stress the importance of correctly learning how to pronounce each sound.  Since every word in Japanese is composed of these sounds,
learning an incorrect pronunciation for a letter can severely damage the very foundation on which your pronunciation lies.
</p>

<p />
<center>
<table border="1" cellpadding="8" class="bigger">
<caption>Hiragana Table 1</caption>
<tr align="center"><th>n</th> <th>w</th> <th>r</th> <th>y</th> <th>m</th> <th>h</th>
    <th>n</th> <th>t</th> <th>s</th> <th>k</th> <th>&nbsp;</th><th>&nbsp;</th></tr>

<tr align="center"><td>ん</td> <td>わ</td> <td>ら</td> <td>や</td> <td>ま</td> <td>は</td>
    <td>な</td> <td>た</td> <td>さ</td> <td>か</td> <td>あ</td> <th>a</th></tr>

<tr align="center"><td class="empty">&nbsp;</td> <td>ゐ*</td> <td>り</td> <td class="empty">&nbsp;</td> <td>み</td> <td>ひ</td> <td>に</td>
    <td>ち<br /><span class="small">(chi)</span></td> <td>し<br /><span class="small">(shi)</span></td> <td>き</td> <td>い</td> <th>i</th></tr>

<tr align="center"><td class="empty">&nbsp;</td><td class="empty">&nbsp;</td><td>る</td> <td>ゆ</td> <td>む</td> <td>ふ<br /><span class="small">(fu)</span></td> <td>ぬ</td>
    <td>つ<br /><span class="small">(tsu)</span></td> <td>す</td> <td>く</td> <td>う</td> <th>u</th></tr>

<tr align="center"><td class="empty">&nbsp;</td> <td>ゑ*</td> <td>れ</td> <td class="empty">&nbsp;</td> <td>め</td> <td>へ</td>
    <td>ね</td> <td>て</td> <td>せ</td> <td>け</td> <td>え</td> <th>e</th></tr>

<tr align="center"><td class="empty">&nbsp;</td> <td>を</td> <td>ろ</td> <td>よ</td> <td>も</td> <td>ほ</td> <td>の</td>
    <td>と</td> <td>そ</td> <td>こ</td> <td>お</td> <th>o</th></tr>
</table>
* = obsolete (ie no longer used)


</center>

<p>Hiragana is not too tough to master or teach and as a result, there are a variety of web sites and free programs that are already
available on the web.
I strongly urge you to go to this <a href="http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/~ts/japanese/cover.html">web site</a> to hear the pronunciations of
each character.  The relevant sections are 2.1 to 2.11.
I also suggest recording yourself and comparing the sounds to make sure you're getting it right.</p>

<p>When practicing writing hiragana by hand,
the important thing to remember is that the stroke order and direction of the strokes <em><b><u><i>matter</i></u></b></em>.
There, I underlined, italicized, bolded, and highlighted it to boot.  Trust me, you'll eventually find out why when you read other people's
hasty notes that are nothing more than chicken scrawls.  The only thing that will help you is that everybody writes in the same order and so the
"flow" of the characters is fairly consistent. I <u>strongly</u> recommend that you pay close attention to stroke order
from the beginning starting with hiragana to avoid falling into bad habits.  Go to this
<a href="http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Shrine/7047/hboth.htm">web site</a> to see little animated gifs of stroke order and
practice from there.</p>

<p>※ As an aside, an old Japanese poem called 「いろは」 was often used as the base for ordering of the hiragana alphabet until recent times.
The poem contains every single letter of the hiragana alphabet except for 「ん」 which probably did not exist at the time it was written.
You can check out this poem for yourself in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroha">this wikipedia article</a>. As the article mentions,
this order is still sometimes used in ordering lists so you may want to spend some time checking it out.
</p>

<div class="sumbox">
<span class="summary">Notes</span>
<ol>
<li>Except for 「し」、「ち」、「つ」、and 「ん」、you can get a sense of how each letter is pronounced by matching the consonant on the top
row to the vowel.  For example, 「き」 would become / ki / and 「ゆ」 would become / yu / and so on.  </li>
<li>Go to this <a href="http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/~ts/japanese/cover.html">web site</a> to hear the pronunciations of
each hiragana character.  The relevant sections are from 2.1 to 2.11. </li>
<li>As you can see, not all sounds match the way
our consonant system works.  As written in the table, 「ち」 is pronounced "chi" and 「つ」 is pronounced "tsu".</li>
<li>The / r / or / l / sound in Japanese is quite different from any sound in English. It involves more of a roll and a clip by hitting the roof of
your mouth with your tongue.  Pay careful attention to that whole column.</li>
<li>Pay careful attention to the difference between / tsu / and / su /.</li>
<li>The 「ん」 character is a special character because it is rarely used by itself and does not have a vowel sound.  It is attached to another
character to add a / n / sound.  For example, 「かん」 becomes 'kan' instead of 'ka', 「まん」 becomes 'man' instead of 'ma', and so on and so forth.</li>
<li><u>You must learn the correct stroke order and direction!</u> Go to this
<a href="http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Shrine/7047/hboth.htm">web site</a> to learn.</li>
</ol>
</div>

<h2 id="part2">The Muddied Sounds</h2>
Once you memorize all the characters in the hiragana alphabet you're done learning the alphabet but not all the sounds.
There are five more possible
consonant sounds that are possible by either affixing two tiny lines similar to a double quotation mark called <i>dakuten</i> （濁点）
or a tiny circle called <i>handakuten</i> （半濁点）.  This essentially
creates a "muddy" or less clipped version of the consonant (technically called a voiced consonant or 「濁り」, which literally means to become muddy).

<p>All the possible combinations of muddied consonant sounds are given in the table below.</p>

<p />
<center>
<table border="1" cellpadding="8" class="bigger">
<caption>Muddied Consonant Sounds</caption>
<tr align="center"><th>p</th> <th>b</th> <th>d</th> <th>z</th> <th>g</th><th>&nbsp;</th></tr>

<tr align="center"><td>ぱ</td> <td>ば</td> <td>だ</td> <td>ざ</td> <td>が</td> <th>a</th></tr>

<tr align="center"><td>ぴ</td> <td>び</td> <td>ぢ<br /><span class="small">(ji)</span></td> <td>じ<br /><span class="small">(ji)</span></td> <td>ぎ</td> <th>i</th></tr>

<tr align="center"><td>ぷ</td> <td>ぶ</td> <td>づ<br /><span class="small">(dzu)</span></td> <td>ず</td> <td>ぐ</td> <th>u</th></tr>

<tr align="center"><td>ぺ</td> <td>べ</td> <td>で</td> <td>ぜ</td> <td>げ</td> <th>e</th></tr>

<tr align="center"><td>ぽ</td> <td>ぼ</td> <td>ど</td> <td>ぞ</td> <td>ご</td> <th>o</th></tr>
</table>
</center>


<div class="sumbox">
<span class="summary">Notes</span>
<ol>
<li>Go to this <a href="http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/~ts/japanese/cover.html">web site</a> again to hear the pronunciations of
these new sounds.  The relevant parts are at the end of sections 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, and 2.6.</li>
<li>Notice that 「ぢ」 sounds essentially identical to 「じ」 and both are pronounced as / ji /, while 「づ」 is pronounced like / dzu /.</li>
</ol>
</div>

<h2 id="part3">The Small 「や」、「ゆ」、and 「よ」</h2>
You can also combine a consonant with a / ya / yu / yo / sound by attaching a small 「や」、「ゆ」、or 「よ」 to
the / i / vowel character of each consonant.

<p />
<center>
<table border="1" cellpadding="8" class="bigger">
<caption>All possible small や、ゆ、and よ combinations</caption>
<tr align="center"><th>p</th> <th>b</th>  <th>j</th> <th>g</th> <th>r</th>
    <th>m</th> <th>h</th> <th>n</th> <th>c</th> <th>s</th> <th>k</th> <th>&nbsp;</th></tr>

<tr align="center"><td>ぴゃ</td> <td>びゃ</td> <td>じゃ</td> <td>ぎゃ</td> <td>りゃ</td>
    <td>みゃ</td> <td>ひゃ</td> <td>にゃ</td> <td>ちゃ</td> <td>しゃ</td> <td>きゃ</td> <th>ya</th></tr>

<tr align="center"><td>ぴゅ</td> <td>びゅ</td>  <td>じゅ</td> <td>ぎゅ</td> <td>りゅ</td>
    <td>みゅ</td> <td>ひゅ</td> <td>にゅ</td> <td>ちゅ</td> <td>しゅ</td> <td>きゅ</td> <th>yu</th></tr>

<tr align="center"><td>ぴょ</td> <td>びょ</td> <td>じょ</td> <td>ぎょ</td> <td>りょ</td>
    <td>みょ</td> <td>ひょ</td> <td>にょ</td> <td>ちょ</td> <td>しょ</td> <td>きょ</td> <th>yo</th></tr>
</table>
</center>

<div class="sumbox">
<span class="summary">Notes</span>
<ol>
<li>The above table is the same as before. Match the top consonants to the vowel sound on the right. Ex: きゃ = kya.</li>
<li>Go to this <a href="http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/~ts/japanese/double.html">web site</a> again to hear the pronunciations of
these new sounds.  The author has decided to include 「ぢゃ」、「ぢゅ」、and 「ぢょ」 but these combinations are actually never used in
favor of 「じゃ」、「じゅ」、and 「じょ」.</li>
<li>Also note that since 「じ」 is pronounced / ji /, all the small 「や」、「ゆ」、「よ」 sounds are also based off of that, namely; / jya / jyu / jyo /.</li>
<li>The same thing also applies to 「ち」 which becomes / cha / chu / cho / and 「し」 which becomes / sha / shu / sho /. (Though arguably, you can
still think of it as / sya / syu / syo /.)</li>
</ol>
</div>

<h2 id="part4">The Small 「つ」</h2>
A small 「つ」 is inserted between two characters to carry the consonant sound of the second character to the end of the first.  For example,
if you inserted a small 「つ」 between 「び」 and 「く」 to make 「びっく」,
the / k / consonant sound is carried back to the end of the first character to produce "bikku".
Similarly, 「はっぱ」 becomes "happa", 「ろっく」 becomes "rokku" and so on and so forth.  I have provided my own simple
<a href="motomotto.mp3">mp3 file</a> to illustrate
the sound difference between 「もと」 and 「もっと」.  And in case you're wondering, both are actual words and yes, both mean different things.

<div class="sumbox">
<span class="summary">Notes</span>
<ol>
<li>A small 「つ」 is used to carry the consonant sound of the second character to the end of the first.
Ex: 「がっき」 = "ga<em>k</em>ki".</li>
<li>Download this <a href="motomotto.mp3">mp3 file</a> to hear the difference between 「もと」 and 「もっと」.</li>
<li>The addition of another consonant almost always creates the characteristic clipping sound.
But make sure you're clipping with the right consonant (the consonant of the second character).</li>
</ol>
</div>

<h2 id="part5">The Long Vowel Sound</h2>
Whew! You're almost done.  In this last portion, we will go over the long vowel sound which is simply extending the duration of a vowel sound.
You can extend the vowel sound of a character by adding either 「あ」、「い」、or 「う」
depending on the vowel in accordance to the following chart.

<p />
<center>
<table border="1" cellpadding="5">
<caption>Extending Vowel Sounds</caption>
<tr align="center"><th>Vowel Sound</th><th>Extended by</th></tr>

<tr align="center"><td>/ a /</td><td>あ</td></tr>

<tr align="center"><td>/ i / e /</td><td>い</td></tr>

<tr align="center"><td>/ u / o /</td><td>う</td></tr>

</table>
</center>

<p>For example, if you wanted to create an extended vowel sound from 「か」, you would add 「あ」 to create 「かあ」.
Other examples would include:  「き → きい」, 「く → くう」, 「け → けい」, 「こ → こう」, 「さ → さあ」 and so on.  The reasoning for this is quite simple.
Try saying 「か」 and 「あ」 separately.  Then say them in succession as fast as you can.  You'll notice that soon enough, it just sounds like you're dragging
out the / ka / for a longer duration than just saying / ka / by itself.  You can try this exercise with the other vowel sounds if you like.
Try to remember that you are, in fact, saying two characters with blurred boundaries.  In fact, you may not even have to consciously
think about long vowels and simply pronounce the letters together quickly to get the correct sound.
</p>

<p>
In addition, while the / e / vowel sound followed by 「い」 is usually considered to a long vowel sound, the pronunciation is actually a slurred connection of the / e / and / i / vowel sounds. In other words, it should be pronounced like / ay / (as in "acorn") and not just a long / e /.
</p>

<p>It's important to make sure you hold the vowel sound long enough because you can be saying things like "here" （ここ） instead of "High School" （こうこう）
or "middle-aged lady" （おばさん） instead of "grandmother" （おばあさん） if you don't stretch it out correctly!
</p>

<p>There are rare exceptions where an / e / vowel sound is extended by adding 「え」 or an / o / vowel sound is extended by 「お」. Some examples of this
include 「おねえさん」、「おおい」、and 「おおきい」. Pay careful attention to these exceptions but don't worry, there aren't too many of them.
</p>

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<div class="small" style="text-align:right;"><pre>This page has last been revised on 2006/4/7
Added reference to 「いろは」 (2005/8/3)
/ei/ should be pronounced as /ay/ and not just a long /e/ (2006/4/7)
</pre></div>

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